This isn't our symbol

"How could..."

"How could this happen..."

Staring at the shattered bronze mirror, Li Shuhua wanted to cry, but no tears came.

After witnessing Dayu's splendor firsthand, he had become even more fascinated by Huaxia's unknown ancestors.

Even his dreams now were filled with those figures who had towered over the long course of Huaxia's history.

But Su Chen's accounts alone only gave Li Shuhua their names. He had never seen their faces or learned their histories, leaving him unable to truly satisfy his curiosity.

He had thought he would soon witness another of Huaxia's ancestors return.

Never had he imagined things would turn out like this.

Looking at the pile of fragments on the table, Li Shuhua finally buckled under his grief. His eyes rolled back, and he toppled backward.

"Old Li!"

Zhu Yuanzheng's eye twitched, and he hurriedly reached out to catch Li Shuhua.

"Old Li, try to look on the bright side. Even if the second symbol is broken,"

"we still have the Nine Provinces Cauldron! We still have three hundred million Descendants of Dayu!"

"Huaxia won't fall!"

"There'll definitely be a third symbol, and a fourth."

"We still have a chance!"

Zhu Yuanzheng's words of comfort had no effect on Li Shuhua.

To the old man, Huaxia's lost history had already become more important than his own life.

And each ancestor symbol represented a forgotten piece of that history.

Now that the symbol had shattered, that piece of history could never be recovered.

To Li Shuhua, that feeling was truly worse than death!

Seeing Li Shuhua's tightly closed eyes and streaming tears, Zhu Yuanzheng let out a mournful sigh, his face clouded with worry.

He, too, yearned to learn about Huaxia's forgotten history, but he did not value it as deeply as Li Shuhua did.

He was a soldier. Huaxia's present and future mattered more to him.

And an ancestor symbol did not merely represent the past. It also determined how far Huaxia could go and how high it could rise.

Although Zhu Yuanzheng could not bear to say more while trying to comfort Li Shuhua,

he knew all too well.

The destruction of an ancestor symbol was an unbearable catastrophe for Huaxia.

Leaving aside what other countries might think,

the news alone would deal a heavy blow to the morale of Huaxia's people.

The national confidence they had worked so hard to build would likely suffer as well.

Though Huaxia was now powerful and renowned far and wide,

it still had only one symbol, while every other country had two!

Once those second symbols were activated, the strength of nations across the world would surely surge again, while Huaxia could only stand still.

As the others rose and Huaxia stagnated, its current standing would inevitably be shaken.

Those forces eyeing Huaxia hungrily would surely make their moves, too.

When that happened,

the advantages Huaxia had worked so hard to establish might all come to nothing.

But however bitter or painful it was, what could they do now?

As the saying went, spilled water could not be gathered up, and a broken mirror could not be made whole.

Staring at the pile of bronze mirror fragments on the table, Zhu Yuanzheng and Li Shuhua had no solution. They could only sink into anguished silence.

Yet Su Chen seemed oblivious to all of this.

Ever since the fragments had arrived, he had stood beside the table without once raising his head.

Only after Zhu Yuanzheng and Li Shuhua had withdrawn into despair did he frown slightly and murmur,

"This isn't right..."

After speaking, he did not look up. Instead, he grew even more focused.

There were dozens of bronze mirror fragments of varying sizes.

The largest were about half the size of a palm, while the smallest were no bigger than a fingernail.

Yet Su Chen picked up even the tiniest fragments to examine them carefully.

He even copied the patterns formed by the assembled fragments onto paper, stroke by stroke, laying his sketches beside the pieces to compare them repeatedly and work out the missing details.

But the longer he studied them, the deeper the confusion in his eyes became.

"No..."

"This really isn't right!"

Su Chen kept shaking his head, his brows tightly knitted as he paced beside the table.

Suddenly, he stopped, as though something had occurred to him, and slammed his palm onto the table.

Crack!

With a sharp crack, the solid wooden table split in two.

The bronze mirror fragments scattered across the floor with a clatter.

The sudden crash startled Zhu Yuanzheng and Li Shuhua out of their stupor.

But when their gazes shifted to Su Chen, they were startled again.

His expression was dark, and his eyes were filled with shock and fury.

An icy aura burst from him, and the temperature throughout the room seemed to drop several degrees.

Even Zhu Yuanzheng, a veteran of countless battles, felt the hairs rise on his back.

Was this...

Killing intent?!

Zhu Yuanzheng's heart tightened. He hurriedly pushed Li Shuhua out of his arms and sprang up.

"Su Chen, what's done is done. You have to stay calm!"

Li Shuhua also rose shakily to his feet. Forcing down his grief, he urged,

"Yes... Mr. Su, the ancestor symbol is broken, and there's nothing we can do about that. But you're Huaxia's inheritor now. You mustn't fall apart..."

Su Chen was undoubtedly far more important to Huaxia than the symbol.

If he could not withstand this blow, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Yet looking at the bronze mirror fragments strewn across the floor, Li Shuhua still felt his heart ache.

He was about to bend down and pick them up when Su Chen thrust out a foot and kicked the fragments far away.

"Mr. Su! What are you doing?!"

Li Shuhua jerked his head up, anger creeping into his voice.

"Even if the symbol is broken, it's still an ancient artifact of Huaxia! It represents Huaxia's ancestors! How could you do that?!"

Zhu Yuanzheng frowned deeply as well, feeling as though he no longer recognized the Su Chen before him.

"Mr. Li, General Zhu."

Su Chen took a deep breath. As his emotions steadied, the killing intent surrounding him gradually dissipated.

But his gaze remained sharp, and his voice was still icy.

Looking at Zhu Yuanzheng and Li Shuhua, he pointed at the bronze mirror fragments on the floor.

He spoke slowly, emphasizing every word.

"This thing isn't a symbol of our Huaxia at all!"

What?!

At those words, the expression on Zhu Yuanzheng's face froze, and Li Shuhua's hand stopped in mid-reach.

Zhu Yuanzheng's brows furrowed, relaxed, then furrowed again. After thinking for a long while, he asked hesitantly,

"Su Chen... do you mean this bronze mirror isn't a symbol?"

"But the search team combed the entire area around the impact site. They confirmed that these fragments were the only things there."

"And this bronze mirror is clearly ancient. Old Li has never seen it before either, which means it wasn't an artifact already in Huaxia. If it isn't a symbol, what else could it be?"

Su Chen shook his head and said gravely,

"You haven't understood me."

"I'm saying that this bronze mirror is indeed a symbol."

"But it isn't a symbol of our Huaxia!"

"Huh?"

Zhu Yuanzheng and Li Shuhua were utterly dumbfounded.

From the moment the fragments arrived until now, the possibility had never even crossed their minds.

Everyone believed that anything falling within their country's borders had to be their own country's ancestor symbol.

So even though Su Chen spoke with absolute certainty, neither man could believe it.

"Mr. Su... could you have made a mistake?"

"Exactly! Su Chen, this thing is at least several hundred, if not a thousand years old. There's no writing on it, and it's shattered like this. How can you be sure it isn't our symbol?"

"Right! If it isn't our ancestor symbol, why did it fall in Huaxia? And where did our symbol go?"

"Su Chen! What you're saying doesn't make sense!"